What Comes After
by ArgentRoseSableWolf
Summary: Oneshot, one possible aftermath of the Final Battle.  Perhaps one day this might be the epilogue to something longer, but for now, this is it.


What Comes After

The blonde angel sat in the center of the ruined hall, stroking the long, red locks of the woman lying by her side. After a moment, the redhead stretched and opened her eyes. Catching sight of the woman beside her, she said, "L-L-Luna?"

"Yes, Ginny-love, I'm here."

Ginny sat up and threw her arms around Luna. "Moonstone!"

Luna held her, stroking her back gently with one hand. "Shhh, Firefly, shhh, everything's fine.

Ginny's eyes widened for a moment. "Did we…?"

Luna pointed over Ginny's left shoulder. Turning around, she saw a ragged circle of bodies sprawled across the wreckage in the hall, clad in the tattered remains of black robes and white masks. In the center of the circle, a small, blackened form lay, crumpled and smoldering. Pinning that body to the floor was the twisted mass of metal that was once the Sword of Gryffindor.

"It's finished. Voldemort is destroyed, and his Inner Circle with him."

Ginny smiled, then stiffened suddenly. "And Harry?"

Luna started to reply, but was interrupted by a groan. Turning, they both saw a slim, well-built young man with long black hair slowly sitting up near them, his head held in both hands. As he looked up sharp, emerald-green eyes met theirs.

"Urgh, who told the Quidditch International Association that they could hold the World Cup in my head?"

Two voices squealed, "Shadowfang!" and two blurs, one blonde, one red, impacted into his chest and knocked him back to the floor. For long minutes, there were no further words, no sounds, just three people wrapped in one another's arms.

Eventually, Luna rose to her feet, and lifted Ginny to hers. Together, they helped Harry up, and the three of them staggered over to what was left of the Dark Lord. Harry looked down silently for a moment, then heaved a deep heartfelt sigh.

"So, it's over at last." He looked puzzled for a moment. "But how? I can't quite remember… It was all such chaos… We were here in the Great Hall, waiting. We'd just received word that the last ward had fallen, then Voldemort and the rest broke in. We fought, but there were too many." He paused, trying to put the fragments together. "I was losing my mind. Ginny, Lucius had had you under the _Crucio_ for what seemed like forever. Luna, you were pinned to the ground; Bellatrix had just cast _Avada Kedavra_ at you, and I couldn't get past Voldemort to reach you. He laughed, and I lost control. I screamed and thrust the Sword of Gryffindor into him; there was a white flash, I reached for you both with my arms and my magick, and then—nothing…"

Luna smiled, hugged them both and said, "It was love, Harry. That was the power that he knew not. Our love for one another, our willingness to sacrifice all to stop him, was the one thing he could not defeat. He was blasted by the light of souls linked in love, and no darkness can survive in the heart of that light."

Ginny's brow wrinkled as she looked at Luna quizzically. "You seem different, Moonstone. You're more focused, more _here_, than I've ever seen you."

Luna just smiled at her. "The time of Voldemort has passed, and with it my time as a Seer. I no longer have to focus on many probabilities at once. Now, I'm simply me. Just Luna, just Moonstone. Wife to Firefly, wife to Shadowfang."

She stopped, then sprang away from them laughing in delight. As she began to dance around the hall, they both saw once again, for just a moment, the whimsical sprite who had captured their hearts, and brought the three of them together. They smiled at one another, then at her. Wars were over, battles done. The three of them were together, as it was always meant to be. Nothing else mattered

Luna pranced over to them, and took them by the hands. "Come on now, they're waiting for us outside, our family and friends. Last one out is a Crumpled-Horned Snorkack!"

Harry grinned mischievously at them both. Before they could react, he was gone, and a jet-black wolf stood in his place. Leaping on them both, he pushed them to the floor, licked both their faces, and then sprang away, running for the door.

"Harry!! That's cheating!!" Ginny shrieked, and began to run. After several paces forward she paused, and a scarlet and gold phoenix shot from the space she had occupied a split-second earlier. Trilling loudly, it flew in circles around the wolf, diving and twirling. Together, they raced through the hall for the doors at the far end.

Luna looked after them, laughing at the antics of the two she loved most. She moved towards the door, then paused, looking back one last time. She stared for a moment at the circle of Death Eaters, and then looked beyond them to the three bodies wrapped in one another's arms, waves of crimson and gold spilling across the chest of the dark-haired figure in the center. Smiling gently, she murmured softly to herself: "And all we see, and all we seem, is but a dream, within a dream."

At last, turning back towards the door, she called, "Wait for me, my loves." The air shimmered around her, and a small, smoke-grey cat leapt after the wolf and phoenix. First the phoenix passed through the door into the bright light beyond, then the wolf. Moonstone passed through in her turn, and followed Firefly and Shadowfang on to the next great adventure.

Luna's quote from: A Dream Within a Dream, by Edgar Allan Poe


End file.
